Dunaújvárosi Acélbikák Steel Bulls have put in a call from Central Hungary to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario to ask veteran defenseman Bronson Kovacs to play another season of professional hockey in Erste Liga.

Bronson Kovacs

And the 29-year old Kovacs — he will turn 30 in July — told Hockey News North that he has made a verbal agreement to return to the Steel Bulls for the 2020-2021 hockey season. The 2020-2021 campaign will mark the sixth season of pro hockey in Hungary for Kovacs.

It is another level of the game for Zoltan (Toots) Kovacs. A fixture within the local hockey community for decades, the 60-year old Kovacs has enrolled with the Sault College Cougars men’s team as an assistant to head coach Mike Hall.

Many around the globe have left their office work stations to set up shop at home as a health precaution against the COVID-19 pandemic. But I was already ahead of the game as someone who has been working and writing from home for a number of years now.

Hard-driven Michael Kantor, who played in more than 200 Ontario Hockey League games for Saginaw Spirit, Soo Greyhounds and Sudbury Wolves despite never being drafted, is turning to the business side of the game.

Commissioner Kevin Abrams of the Central Canada Hockey League has confirmed the sale and transfer of the Kanata Lasers. And Ryan Leonard of the Cochrane Crunch of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League is part of the transaction which will see Kanata relocate to Renfrew effective the 2020-2021 season.

Sault College’s scoring machine was firing on all cylinders again on the weekend. Local product Ryan Vendramin netted seven goals — giving him 61 on the season — as the Cougars roared to a pair of American Collegiate Hockey Association victories over the West Virginia University Mountaineers.

Through 24 games thus far this 2019-2020 season, the Sault College Cougars have compiled a rousing record of 19-3-2. Glancing ahead, after an away weekend at Michigan State University on February 7 and 8, the Sault College men will be on the home ice of Rankin Arena for matches against West Virginia University on February 15 and 16.

A recent excursion to London allowed me the opportunity to meet up with my old friend Mark Locken, who was a standout Ontario Hockey League goalie from 1975 to 1978. Locken won a Memorial Cup as a rookie with the Hamilton Fincups before playing for the Soo Greyhounds and the Niagara Falls Flyers in the OHL.